11th December

Jesus was never fazed by difficulties, nor were those who NEEDED to see him. In today’s Gospel, Luke recounts the men carrying their crippled friend on a stretcher; ‘but as the crowd made it impossible to find a way of getting him in, they went up onto the flat roof and lowered him and his stretcher down.’ (Lk 5:19). These friends do everything they can to make sure that their troubled friend can meet Jesus and find healing-they do not care what it takes. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and we have certainly had to be inventive during the pandemic times: our patience was tried and tested, and we had to find new ways of getting close to Jesus and others, even when social distancing was in play. Of course, we need guidelines, rules, and regulations, but just like the friends of the sick man, we will sometimes have to put protocol to one side for the greater good--thank God for that little bit of ‘rebel’ that is in you.

Today: thank God for those friends who do anything to support us; those friends we can ring at 2.00am and not get shouted out; those friends who tell us the truth, especially when we do not want to hear it; those friends who will walk a Camino with us come rain, hail, snow, or sunshine. Thank God for real friends!

We can pray:

You have blessed us, O God, with the gift of friendship,

the bonding of people in a circle of love.

We thank you for such a blessing:

for friends who love us,

who share our sorrows,

who laugh with us in celebration,

who bear our pain,

who need us as we need them,

who cry as we cry,

who hold us when we need them,

and who give us the freedom to be ourselves.

Bless our friends with health and love.   AMEN.